“You have been a very long time,” she remarked casually.

“An especially delicious coffee had to be prepared for Mademoiselle, and strict orders given that we were not to be disturbed until I give the signal.  Also that this quarter of the house, which is mine, is to be cleared absolutely of all inhabitants.  Therefore shall we be at peace even until this time to-morrow if I make no sign.  Also to emphasise my orders, I ordered that a certain person be bastinadoed.  She sickens me with her outpourings of love, and was loitering about this door seeking doubtlessly to enter.  When she does she will most certainly not enter upon her feet if my orders have been strictly carried out.”

And even as he spoke a distant piercing scream, followed by another, and yet another, rent the air, causing Jill’s mouth to shut like a steel trap, and her eyes to blaze like fires.

“That is what happens when I am disobeyed, Mademoiselle!  Here is your coffee, drink it!”

The tone was brutal, and Jill meekly put out her hand to take the little porcelain and silver trifle the man was bringing to her, laying it beside the emerald ring upon the table as he turned to fetch his own cup.

“Drop that!”

Jill had not raised her voice, but a certain unmistakable quality in it caused the man to wheel sharply.

He stared in blank amazement for a fleeting second, and then, still carefully holding the cup, backed hastily and sideways out of the direct range of a very small but very useful-looking revolver in Jill’s right hand.

There was a curious lifelessness in the whole situation, and a quite distressing lack of drama until the oriental smiled contemptuously.

“Do not think to frighten me with that plaything, because I am totally unafraid.  We hear of the Englishwomen who shoot and ride like men, but—­well! we hear so many tales of Europe.  Put up your little toy, Mademoiselle, and remember in future that no one with any respect for his life ever gives me an order!”

With an indifference that was not in the least assumed, he raised the cup he was still holding.

There was a crashing report in the luxurious room, a tinkling of broken china, and a wisp of smoke between a smiling girl and a very surprised man.

“Don’t be a fool, and do as you’re told if you have any respect for your life,” said Jill tersely, as she moved her hand slightly so that her aim was on a dead level with a big button ornamenting an inch or so of satin on the middle left of the man’s undervest.

He stood like an image carved out of consternation, whilst streaks of rage seemed to flash across his livid face.  Be it confessed, he was not in the least afraid, but no word in the Egyptian or any other tongue could be found to express the depths of humiliation in which he stood neck deep.

“Now, drink this coffee!” said Jill pleasantly, pointing with her left hand to the cup she had placed on the little table.